From The New York Post

O'TOOLE: THE LION IN WINTER

By LARRY WORTH
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PETER O'Toole is one of the most distinguished-looking 65-year-olds on the planet. But in the public's eye, he'll always be a blond, blue-eyed 30-year-old. Namely, "Lawrence of Arabia." It's a fact he's accepted - and embraced - since the film's 1962 release. But by all appearances, O'Toole is a throwback to the past.

He wears a three-piece suit that defines sartorial splendor, waves his cigarette - affixed on an ebony holder - through the air at the Ritz-Carlton and sports a lime handkerchief peeking from his forest-green jacket. Then there's the voice - defined by lilting, pitch-perfect elocution - which drips elegance.

But one should always expect the unexpected with the Irish trouper. In the midst of an anecdote about spending Christmas in England's Yorkshire dales, he shouts across the lobby to confirm his attendance at a Bob Dylan-Van Morrison concert.

"Van the Man's the best," he whispers in a conspiratorial style. "And Dylan? He's our poet laureate, for heaven's sake."

O'Toole may have classical roots, but he's a man of eclectic tastes, exemplified as he quotes Robert Browning's "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" one minute, then segues into Spice Girls lyrics.

He jumps as easily from 19th-century English poet A.E. Housman to one of Hollywood's golden boys of the moment, Ben Affleck. But that's not so arbitrary; O'Toole and Affleck co-star in the Dean Koontz thriller "Phantoms" (opening Friday), and had long discussions about Housman on the set.

"One day, I was just sitting around when I heard Ben - a fine chunk of a young man - quote Housman to the first assistant. That's when I knew things would click for us. He has a wonderful, fascinating mind."

And, according to O'Toole, a kind heart. Affleck, along with youthful "Phantom" co-stars Rose McGowan and Joanna Going, initially handled him with kid gloves.

"Ben would help me across the street, Joanna showed me where to stand and Rose told me when it was my turn to speak," he laughs. "They all tried to look after me. At least till we settled in."

O'Toole also remembers when he did likewise for his idols. At London's Royal Academy in the '50s, young O'Toole acted with Dame Sybil Thorndike, Robert Atkins and Hugh Miller. Having been treated as their colleague, he learned that "no caste system should exist on a set."

That philosophy also held true during the filming of "Lawrence of Arabia." Neither veteran director David Lean nor superstars Anthony Quinn, Alec Guinness and Claude Rains ever pulled rank, though O'Toole had a mere three movies to his credit at the time.

He remains close friends with "Lawrence" co-star Omar Sharif, having reunited with him and many of their colleagues when the film was painstakingly restored in 1989. The group provided new voice for previously lost sequences.

Of the nearly 50 films that followed, O'Toole doesn't flinch when noting that many weren't worth the effort. But even when shooting the X-rated "Caligula" (wherein the original Gore Vidal script was replaced with a screenplay that bordered on pornography), he tried his best to bring Roman Emperor Tiberius to life.

Nor did throwing himself into work apply just to movies. He labored for two years in the Royal Navy after serving long hours as a photographer and reporter on the Yorkshire Evening News in the '40s. He still has a
brass ashtray inscribed with the paper's logo: "Whatever your needs, the best paper in Leeds."

Suddenly, O'Toole's memories jump to 1982, the year he made headlines for his seventh Oscar nomination: playing alcoholic film star Alan Swann in "My Favorite Year." He still laughs at how Swann's drunken bouts mirrored some of his own well-publicized benders.

Looking out on Central Park, where some of the more raucous "My Favorite Year" scenes were filmed, he tells of having terrified co-star Mark Linn-Baker as they shared the back of a galloping horse. "Yes, that was
the scene of the crime," he smiles.

Not surprisingly, O'Toole's six other Oscar-nominated roles remain the favorites of his career: "Lawrence of Arabia," "Becket," "The Lion in Winter," "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," "The Ruling Class" and "The Stunt Man."

And does O'Toole remain somewhat disappointed that he never got to put the golden one on his mantel?

"It's not something I dismiss airily," he says. "As everyone says, it's an honor to be nominated. That I didn't win the prize is OK. I'm not dead yet."